# Okay, now it's time to put antifa in the same class as racists **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 28, 2017, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-its-time-to-put-antifa-in-the-same-class-as-racists/794922 "2017-08-28T10:38:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2017, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-its-time-to-put-antifa-in-the-same-class-as-racists/794922/21 "2017-08-28T13:06:25Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **adaher** : > > THat’s true, the Nazis now have a friend in the White House, the antifas never have. I think it’s pretty safe to say that Eisenhower was an antifa (a violent one, even). Truman and FDR, too. Now, anarchists, they’re unsurprisingly pretty rare in the upper levels of government, but as we were just pointing out, that’s a very different group from antifa. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2017, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-its-time-to-put-antifa-in-the-same-class-as-racists/794922/22 "2017-08-28T13:11:49Z")
> [@](#): > > Since then — from Sept. 12, 2001, to Dec. 31, 2016 — there have been 85 attacks in the country by violent extremists resulting in 225 deaths. GAO reported citing data from the U.S. Extremist Crime Database. > > Of those 225 deaths: > > • 106 individuals were killed by far-right violent extremists in 62 separate incidents; > > • 119 individuals were killed by radical Islamist violent extremists in 23 separate incidents; That’s an interesting choice of start dates. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2017, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-its-time-to-put-antifa-in-the-same-class-as-racists/794922/23 "2017-08-28T13:23:02Z")
Yeah, I’ve noticed that 9/11 is commonly used by statisticians as the BCE/CE of terrorism events in America. \ ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2017, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-its-time-to-put-antifa-in-the-same-class-as-racists/794922/24 "2017-08-28T13:28:05Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Henry had acted on his belief that “there are no innocent bourgeois.” He had intended to kill more. > > At his trial in April 1894, which ended with him sentenced to death, Henry did not hide his guilt. He rather used the court as a forum for Anarchist propaganda. He ranted, “We who hand out death know how to take it . . . (Anarchism) is in violent revolt against the established order. It will finish by killing you.”" \* and the sad thing is that most of this stuff is carried out by insignificant little twats (almost always 15-23 year old “men”) who do it out of the desperate need to feel important. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2017, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-its-time-to-put-antifa-in-the-same-class-as-racists/794922/25 "2017-08-28T13:31:37Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > **Okay, now it’s time to put antifa in the same class as racists** Holy fuck you are stupid. Remind me again how many people are born adhering to fascism as a political ideology? ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2017, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-its-time-to-put-antifa-in-the-same-class-as-racists/794922/26 "2017-08-28T13:36:27Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > and the sad thing is that most of this stuff is carried out by insignificant little twats (almost always 15-23 year old “men”) who do it out of the desperate need to feel important. I think that the sad thing is that in his example, (in fact, in the very text he quoted), the bombing was not done for political purposes, but for revenge: > [@](#): > > Seeking to avenge the death of Vaillant, Henry hid a bomb in a metal lunchbox as he stalked the elegant cafes along the Avenue de l’Opera. . ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2017, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-its-time-to-put-antifa-in-the-same-class-as-racists/794922/27 "2017-08-28T13:38:57Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Holy fuck you are stupid. I would like to extend an apology for this comment: **adaher** , I’m sorry. My comment was rude and inaccurate. What I should have written was “Holy fuck that’s stupid.” Because it is. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2017, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-its-time-to-put-antifa-in-the-same-class-as-racists/794922/28 "2017-08-28T14:00:44Z")
The people behind the September 11 attacks were radical right-wing extremists. They were also radical religious extremists: There’s an awful lot of overlap between those two categories. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2017, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-its-time-to-put-antifa-in-the-same-class-as-racists/794922/29 "2017-08-28T14:19:54Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > Yeesh, that’s a stretch. Gimme a Dylann Roof or Timothy McVeigh example in modern America. Theodore John Kaczynski, aka “The Unibomber”. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2017, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-its-time-to-put-antifa-in-the-same-class-as-racists/794922/30 "2017-08-28T14:22:18Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > I’m also not going to completely rule out the idea that some of these “protesters” could be right-wing plants. Admittedly, there’s no evidence of that to date, but I’m saying I wouldn’t discount that possibility in the future. When people like James O’Keefe fraudulently cook up claims that ACORN was involved in helping prostitution or in voter fraud or whatever else, I don’t put anything past the right wing brown shirts. First thing that crossed my mind with last Feb.'s Berkeley protests, too. True - unprovable, obviously, but if anyone _completely_ dismisses that idea I would say is bordering on disingenuousness/denial. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2017, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-its-time-to-put-antifa-in-the-same-class-as-racists/794922/31 "2017-08-28T14:22:37Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The people behind the September 11 attacks were radical right-wing extremists. They were also radical religious extremists: There’s an awful lot of overlap between those two categories. I don’t think it’s reasonable to put the likes of ISIS/Al-Qaeda on the “normal” right-left spectrum in American politics. It is reasonable to put white supremacists on this spectrum, though, since white supremacists have been so influential and powerful in much of American history. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2017, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-its-time-to-put-antifa-in-the-same-class-as-racists/794922/32 "2017-08-28T14:29:03Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > THat’s true, the Nazis now have a friend in the White House, the antifas never have. But if we’re comparing them on the violence scale, the antifas consider violence to be their primary tactic, and they are the only political group in the country that functions this way. Knowing this, the police should act accordingly and crack their heads. No, the police should be arresting anyone committing violence. No cracking of heads, please. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2017, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-its-time-to-put-antifa-in-the-same-class-as-racists/794922/33 "2017-08-28T14:35:43Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > They are associated with regimes and ideologies that enslaved whole peoples and committed mass murder on a scale that dwarfs anything in human history. Antifa are associated with political violence. That’s why we abhor them. But their stated purpose and history is to oppose fascism. It’s right there in the name. I know you know this, so to intentionally suggest they’re associated with fascism is… odd. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2017, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-its-time-to-put-antifa-in-the-same-class-as-racists/794922/34 "2017-08-28T14:42:11Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > Yeesh, that’s a stretch. Gimme a Dylann Roof or Timothy McVeigh example in modern America. This anarchist placed a bomb on the front gate of a former governor of Idaho killing him. > **[Bill Haywood](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Haywood)** > > Progressive Era > Repression and persecution > Anti-war and civil rights movements Terror deems to go in cycles. In the seventies and eighties we had the Baader-Meinhof Group; The Japanese Red Army; the SLA; The Weathermen; Carlos the Jackel to name a few. All political violence is wrong. For the center to hold childish finger pointing must stop and we have a unified front opposing violence. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2017, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-its-time-to-put-antifa-in-the-same-class-as-racists/794922/35 "2017-08-28T14:45:38Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The people behind the September 11 attacks were radical right-wing extremists. They were also radical religious extremists: There’s an awful lot of overlap between those two categories. Please explain for me the similarities between Al Queda terrorists and American right wingers. Maybe about the same as Khmer Rouge mass murderers and American Liberals. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2017, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-its-time-to-put-antifa-in-the-same-class-as-racists/794922/36 "2017-08-28T14:52:00Z")
I am firmly against political violence, including by this group that seems to only modestly outnumber Emmanuel Goldstein. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2017, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-its-time-to-put-antifa-in-the-same-class-as-racists/794922/37 "2017-08-28T14:53:13Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > This anarchist placed a bomb on the front gate of a former governor of Idaho killing him. > > [Bill Haywood - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Haywood) > > Terror deems to go in cycles. In the seventies and eighties we had the Baader-Meinhof Group; The Japanese Red Army; the SLA; The Weathermen; Carlos the Jackel to name a few. > > All political violence is wrong. For the center to hold childish finger pointing must stop and we have a unified front opposing violence. A little known fact is that Carlos the Jackal was a member of The Front for the Popular Liberation of Palestine. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2017, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-its-time-to-put-antifa-in-the-same-class-as-racists/794922/38 "2017-08-28T14:57:59Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > A little known fact is that Carlos the Jackal was a member of The Front for the Popular Liberation of Palestine. The difference between Carlos and the TFFTLOP, apart from a 1950 year age difference, is that Carlos took action. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2017, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-its-time-to-put-antifa-in-the-same-class-as-racists/794922/39 "2017-08-28T15:00:05Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > Please explain for me the similarities between Al Queda terrorists and American right wingers. Not all right-wingers, but some want to enshrine their extreme, fundamentalist, misogynist, and homophobic sect of Christianity into law with no room for law-abiding productive citizens not of their sect. Substitute Christianity in that sentence with Islam and you have also described Al Queda or ISIS. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2017, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-its-time-to-put-antifa-in-the-same-class-as-racists/794922/40 "2017-08-28T15:00:47Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > A little known fact is that Carlos the Jackal was a member of **The Front for the Popular Liberation of Palestine**. Were they the splitters or was that the Palestine Popular Liberation Front? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-its-time-to-put-antifa-in-the-same-class-as-racists/794922.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-its-time-to-put-antifa-in-the-same-class-as-racists/794922.md?page=3)